Murdoch to sell-up Larneuk Stud with Nagambie on the horizon
$4 million property in tightly held part of north-east Victoria put on the market
Neville Murdoch is selling Larneuk Stud and getting out of the cut-throat stallion game, but the expatriate Kiwi won’t be lost to the thoroughbred breeding industry altogether.
The 84-hectare Victorian farm, located in a tightly held area of Gooram, near Euroa in the state’s breeding heartland, has a price guide in the range of $4 million.
Murdoch, who has owned Larneuk Stud for 21 years, intends to relocate to a 162-hectare property near Nagambie, where he will foal down mares but – without the commitment of stallions – he will have more time to devote to leisure pursuits, particularly travel.
At 68, and more than two decades after seeking a different challenge owing to a relationship breakdown, the former mechanic and self-taught horseman is proud to have been the custodian of Larneuk Stud.
“I didn’t buy it because I was clever. I just bought it because I wanted a lifestyle change and it was only after I’d been here a year and I’d trimmed all the trees around the house that I went, ‘Oh my God’ and everybody who comes here says, ‘this is just so beautiful’,” Murdoch told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“I wanted it because it was old, if that makes sense, the (old) trees and it’s got a full-on orchard. It really is beautiful and it’s just one of those properties that people look at it and go, ‘wow’.
“We’ve got water everywhere, a creek that flows through it, a big dam, it is set-up for somebody to come and do what I do with horses, or they could come and grow cherries or something like that on it if they wanted to.”
Stallions Wandjina (Snitzel) and Wolf Cry (Street Cry) currently front the Larneuk roster in Murdoch’s last season at the helm, while Cluster (Fastnet Rock) was exported to Indonesia earlier this year.
“It’s not retirement, but it’s time to slow down. With stallions, I can’t buy them anymore, the prices are ridiculous, and I have seen that market fall away in the past five years,” he said.
“So, I said, ‘bugger this, I’ll sell up here and move over there to Nagambie’ and … get a life, drink wine and eat nice food.
“We’re glorified dairy farmers really. Since we started foaling, it is literally 24/7.”
Mike Becker, a Victorian thoroughbred industry stalwart, is another person who has inspired Murdoch to consider his options.
“I said to Mike Becker a couple of months ago, ‘every time I see you on Facebook, you’re in Paris wining and dining and having a great time and we’re here working our a### off’,” Murdoch laughed.
“Mike’s about my age, so I understand that we’ve all got to slow down at some stage. It’s not that I don’t want to do anything, I just don’t want to do it as hard.”
Larneuk Stud is being offered for sale through Elders Real Estate Euroa by expressions of interest, which close on November 16.
Selling agent Brendan Allen said the lay of the land on Larneuk Stud was almost impossible to replicate anywhere else in the area.
“That part of our area, the Gooram Valley, is probably the most tightly held region around Euroa and it’s one where the thoroughbred industry is fairly prominent,” Allen said.
“The natural setting there is as good as you’ll see. There’s a permanent creek, big native trees, it’s got extraordinary water supply and a garden that’s taken over a century to be established.”
Larneuk Stud has three road frontages, an all-weather laneway system encircling the property, which is divided into 16 paddocks and 20 smaller troughed paddocks with dams.
There is also a large spring-fed dam with a 120-megalitre groundwater irrigation license, it has seven post-and-rail yards with shelter and there are another nine arrival yards, two crushes, and a large round yard.
There is a farm house as well as a self-sufficient studio bungalow on the property.
Allen revealed that there had already been early interest in the farm, particularly given its proximity to leading stallion farms such as Blue Gum Farm, Swettenham Stud and Yulong.
“You’re in a stone’s throw to all of those properties and, where this property is uniquely positioned is that, while it’s not the scale of those set-ups, it gives an astute operator an opportunity to get into a premium thoroughbred place without having to spend $5–to-$10 million-plus,” he said.
“It gives someone the opportunity to get into something at the top–end of quality without spending eight figures.”
The prospect of Larneuk Stud being sold continues an active market for thoroughbred farms with Rushton Park near Tatura also up for sale as is Pisa Park, near Avenel, a farm used by Luke and Mags Anderson for their Maluka Thoroughbreds operation.
Glen Eden Stud near Kilmore is also on the market, while in New South Wales Ian Smith’s River Point Farm, where his Edinburgh Park Stud has been based, will be auctioned on October 31.